


A Lack of Vision

by DefaltManifesto



Series: 30 Day Song Lyric Challenge [11]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Artificial Insemination, Gen, Guilt, Kid Fic, Male-Female Friendship, Marriage of Convenience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 17:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12988782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DefaltManifesto/pseuds/DefaltManifesto
Summary: “I need to take a Consort,” Sanaki says.Naesala expected many things when he came to her study. That…was not one of them. “I’m sorry, a what?”“A Consort.” She sets her quill back in its rightful place and waves the paper to dry the ink as she looks up at him. “I’m asking you.”“Why on earth would you do that?” he chokes out.“Several reasons, the most important being there’s no one in Begnion I’d trust with the job,” she says.“It’s not a job, it’s being your husband,” Naesala says, words barely making it out of his throat.





	A Lack of Vision

**Author's Note:**

> So...Scepticallyminded might not know this...but this is one of my favorite songs. It's also the song I was listening to the first time I wrote smut (it was Deidara/Sasori and it never made it to the internet lolololol). 
> 
> Today's lyric is from Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears for Fears (though she prefers Lorde's version which IS GREAT but I mean also...):
> 
> "Nothing ever lasts forever/everybody wants to rule the world"
> 
> I took the title from the lyrics "Married with a lack of vision" in the same song.

Sanaki’s twentieth birthday has just passed when she requests Naesala’s presence. The request isn’t a total shock – they’ve exchanged correspondence regularly since their fight with Ashera and the resulting purge of the worst corruption in the Begnion Senate. But this is the formal request of the Empress. Naesala heads there on his own, no longer needing a guard without his royal status.

Upon arriving, he doesn’t receive fanfare but he does get followed as he makes his way to Sanaki’s study in her personal wing. The guards try to be subtle about it. Naesala almost appreciates the effort. You couldn’t trust a crow with the Empress, let alone one who had betrayed his own kind less than a decade ago thanks to a Begnion blood contract. A man like him would understandably have an axe to grind against the Empress.

But he doesn’t. Sanaki is as much a victim of the Empire as he is.

"Ah, you made it.” Sanaki doesn’t look up from her notes, dipping her quill in ink and continuing to write. 

“Hm.” He takes a seat in one of the plush chairs across from her desk. “So, you send me a formal request and meet me in an informal sitting. What’s going on?”

“I need to take a Consort,” she says.

Naesala expected many things when he came to her study. That…was not one of them. “I’m sorry, a what?”

“A Consort.” She sets her quill back in its rightful place and waves the paper to dry the ink as she looks up at him. “I’m asking you.”

“Why on earth would you do that?” he chokes out.

“Several reasons, the most important being there’s no one in Begnion I’d trust with the job,” she says.

"It’s not a job, it’s being your husband,” Naesala says, words barely making it out of his throat.

“That’s not how any of these nobles see it,” she says, lips twisting into a sneer. She’s been spending too much time with the Hawks over the last few years. “They’re all vying to get into my marriage bed and make sure I birth a child they can control once they get me out of the way.”

“You’ve been working on destroying that corruption,” Naesala says.

“I’ve tried, certainly,” she says. “But the threat still exists. The only man I trust with my heir and with my life is…you.”

The words are a bit of a shock but they shouldn’t be. After all, it was a man who raised and betrayed her, a man who led her army and fought her, and a Senate full of men who’d tried to kill her. Her only other close friends and comrades were from the Holy Guard made up entirely of women and then…him.

“I’m also a Laguz,” he says.

“Which makes you all the more ideal,” she says. “It will force the country to accept the Branded due to the voice of the Goddess being one of them. It will also show my commitment to a new start with my Senate. I want to draw a line in the sand.”

“I’m gay,” he adds, more than a little desperate.    

“I’m aware,” she says. “The way you talk of Reyson is more than a little revealing. I have no intention of sleeping with you, I just need your seed to make a child and your marriage to secure my strength.”

Naesala wants the ground to swallow him whole. “So…you want me to marry you, help you have a child, and then…what? Make nice with royalty? Give the rest of my life up?”

“Of course not,” she says. “The position of Consort doesn’t give you any power unless I die. You’ll be free to continue your roaming as you please and take whichever lovers you’d like. I’m not even asking you to be a father. However, I would not be…averse to the idea of you staying around. I need someone to watch my back.”

“Your guard does a terrible job of it,” he says, still processing her request.

“I’m asking you as a friend,” Sanaki says. “Naesala, there’s no one else I trust with this. The line will continue to my child, not to you. You won’t be royalty unless I die and even then your duties would be mostly ceremonial until my child was of age at which point you would be entirely released from your responsibilities. When my child is of age, I’ll dissolve our marriage regardless. I need your commitment for eighteen years. That’s not long for a Laguz.”

Naesala sighs. “You have thought this through from every angle, haven’t you?”

She nods.

“Fine. For eighteen years, I’ll be yours.”

 

-.-

 

It’s an easy choice to make. Sanaki isn’t one to decide on emotion, and he can trust her logic is sound. In all honesty, eighteen years of Begnion politics will be a nice break from thinking about the past. She announces him as her Consort and they’re married by the end of the month much to the shock of most of Tellius.

“She’s a bit young,” Tibarn says at the reception.

“I’m not going to fuck her,” he says. “You know me better than that.”

Tibarn laughs. “You just have a soft spot for young royals, don’t you?”

“Someone has to protect them.”

Tibarn gives him a serious look then. “You’re a good man, Naesala.”

 

-.-

 

Naesala’s never been so grateful for magic. The idea of sharing a bed with Sanaki in that way makes him want to turn into a crow permanently, but the procedure she’s created with Leann saves them both the embarrassment.

 

-.-

 

He doesn’t leave. Perhaps it’s instinct, but as soon as Sanaki’s pregnancy is announced, he finds himself hovering around her. He spends more time in the court and roots out problems before they can become rumors that reach her ears to spare her any added stress, and at night he massages her feet and legs before retiring to his quarters. On one such night, Sanaki is almost asleep as he gets up to leave.

“You make a good husband,” she says, voice soft with sleep. “Thank you…”

He squeezes her ankle. “It’s no trouble.”

She begins to snore and he laughs as he leaves.

 

-.-

 

Asana Misaha Altina is born in late spring. Naesala holds her in the hours after she’s born and marvels at her the small mark on her wrist as Sanaki sleeps. It’s odd. He feels protective of the child in his arms the way he feels protective of Sanaki, which is not at all like a father. It’s just the fierce protection of a friend. He’s a little disappointed. He’s never been uncomfortable with his sexuality, but if anything were going to make him like women he’d thought having a family would do it.

But…no. He doesn’t.

He’ll be damned if he let the girl grow up thinking she didn’t have a father though.

 

-.-

 

Asana is unmistakably his child. Her first word is no.

“I blame you for this,” Sanaki says as Asana screams it at the top of her lungs.

“You asked me to marry you,” Naesala says.

           

-.-

 

Sanaki is still his best friend. That part he doesn’t regret at all. She’s smart and navigates the political world of Begnion with a heavy hand while he sticks to the shadows and manipulates the strings of their opponents. Those who detest Asana’s bloodline quickly find themselves agreeable or find that for some, unknown reason, they must leave the court.

Naesala could care less about those that don’t like him – that’s something he’s used to. It’s hard not to notice though, that whenever he mentions something someone said that was particularly grating to Sanaki, the person winds up never being in the same room as him.

They’re a good team, and while they may not share a romantic love, Naesala is happy they have one another’s backs.

 

-.-

 

Somewhere, in between playing the part of husband, being Sanaki’s friend, and learning to be a father to Asana, Naesala begins to heal. Thinking of the past, of what he’d done under the yoke of the blood contract, doesn’t ache the way it used to, not when he has Asana to read bedtime stories to and later on train with, and Sanaki to lounge in the study and read all day with. There’s love here. Kindness. Forgiveness.

It helps that his and Sanaki’s union actually begins to erode the hostilities the country still holds for Laguz. Asana’s well loved by the country, her playful demeanor so different from Sanaki’s at the same age, endearing them to her. It shouldn’t have taken her existence to make that change. Still, it was a victory. It was one he hadn’t even hoped to wish for twenty-five years ago.

There were still things he wanted to do when the marriage between him and his best friend dissolved. But this…was hardly a waste. No, it was quite the opposite.     


End file.
